NHL division names: Pacific, Central, Atlantic and ... Metropolitan?

The NHL is realigning for the 2013-14 season, and with a six-division league being trimmed down to four divisions, the league had to make changes to those division names. After much speculation, the four division names will keep a geographical bent ... sort of, except that the Pacific, Central and Atlantic divisions will be joined with something called the “Metropolitan Division.”

The Pacific, Central and Atlantic Divisions are all traditional and what we’re used to, but Metropolitan Division is a bit of a curveball. The three New York-area teams are in the same metropolitan area and maybe Philadelphia could be lumped in there, too ... even Washington, possibly, if one wants to push it. But Columbus, Pittsburgh and Carolina are in no way in the same metropolitan area, so it’s a bit weird and a lot of people will make jokes about it.

The NHL had a tough problem to solve in naming the four divisions if they were set on using geographically-based names because Florida and Tampa Bay were put in a division with Boston and Montreal. Suffice it to say, it’s hard to create a division name based on geography, but his is apparently their solution.

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